Senator Joe Johnson for Bermuda's political, business and labour leaders. In these troubled times that is, of course, good and sane advice. Senator Johnson says that solving Bermuda's problems could be intensified if its leaders acted more responsibly and helped confront economic and social woes by acting with "political maturity and moderation.'' What Senator Johnson is suggesting is cooperation toward solutions rather than confrontation which is sometimes bred by people who simply want to exercise their ego and maintain their public exposure. A fair number of those people are not even in politics. It is clear that the Country would have coped with the recession in a much more sensible way if there had been cooperation from the beginning.

Senator Johnson reinforced his argument on Monday night before a forum by saying that "Bermuda is in a crisis.'' We think that is true in a very real sense and that the crisis has been brought to a head by a recession over which Bermuda has no internal control but which is forcing Bermuda to face internal problems for the first time in ten years. There are hopeful signs that the crisis is being faced, or at the least talked about, but it is by no means over and there is a good deal of pain yet to come.

Senator Johnson says, "The Island's hotel industry is foundering, crimes of violence are increasing, unemployment is at an all-time high, and people are stressed to the breaking point.'' Tough words and they are true when applied to the normal standards Bermuda expects but it is important for us to point out that there is hope because Bermuda is not as bad off in these areas as many other places. That is not to minimise the problem because the problem for Bermuda is very real.

"All Bermudians of all political persuasions must come together and participate fully in the redevelopment of Bermuda,'' Senator Johnson says. He is correct and the operative word here is "redevelopment.'' We must not fall into the trap of blaming all Bermuda's problems on the recession. The recession certainly did not help but Bermuda had unresolved social and economic problems before the recession. We think the recession should be seen only as the event which made Bermuda face up to such things as declining tourism, falling standards of service and an increasing carelessness towards attitude and visitor needs.

Senator Johnson is quite right in pointing out that we have the number one ingredient for success in rebuilding the economy, Bermuda's people. That is exactly the reason we have to cooperate to overcome this crisis, the protection of the people from further pain. We see some hopeful signs because businesses in general appear to be doing their best to keep people employed and there has been real cooperation over building starts to provide jobs.

The people themselves must, as Senator Johnson suggests, contribute to their own economic success by helping to keep up Bermuda's reputation as a safe and friendly place.